Hello, I just brought home our first puppy. She is a 9 week old Siberian Husky. I have a few questions about her eating. She hasn't eaten much in the last day. We have only had her now for 1 day. They had fed her at night before we got her, but she hasn't eaten much today. Is this normal?  Not sure where she is? needs to be comforatble at where she is?  She is the greatest thing to ever happen to us :)

It's quite normal for a pup to not have much appetite for a day or two after coming to its new home.  Just offer the food at the normal times and pick it up if its not eaten after 10 minutes. Don't be tempted to add things or change the diet just to get her to eat, so long as she's eating a little she'll be fine - she'll soon be eating you out of house and home I'll bet :)  Have fun with her, and don't forget to look into puppy school to get that early training started and give her some quality socialisation (which should NOT include puppy free for alls :( )

ok. Figured that. She did eat some this morning. We leave the dish out for her. She ate for about 2 minutes and then played for a bit, and went outside to do her business.   I noticed that when she runs and runs she gets hickups. That normal?

Lots of puppies get hiccups, it is normal, and they do grow out of it, so don't worry :)
They do look funny though :D

liberty

My sibe is now 8 months, when she was at that age she didn't eat alot. Kept giving her three meals aday but she would only eat two on a good day, but now she eats us out of house and home.

Hope you enjoy you new puppy, like i'am enjoying Janska, she is a fantastic dog to own.

Good luck.

Jenna and Co.

Hi Jenna -

My wife and I finally got a Siberian Husky. My wife love wolves, and the Siberian. So when we got our new home last month, we had to have one. She has wanted one for so many years. We are new to the breed, but read, researched all about them. I think we are going to have a wonderful time with her.

She is starting to eat here and there more, and running around more. So she is getting comfortable with her new surroundings. I want to get her trained and right away. I have never had a puppy from the get go, so I am not sure how do train. I have been reading articles about how to make your dog sit, stay and what not. There are a few tricks I'd really want to do. One being the "Stay" command. And when I say "Stay" I want her to stay until I tell her to come. Even if its like for 3 -5 minutes.  Also would like to teach her how to balance a bone on her nose and not eat it until I give the command!  How in the world do you train a dog to do that?!?!?!  Just amazing..

I just trained copper to balance a bonio on his nose before he gets to eat it.  Actually, that's a lie :D  I just trained him to shake hands before he gets the bonio and its a huge step forward for us.  I used to think he was untrainable - nope - it just takes a lot of time and patience.  And hey, we are winning :D

CG

HAHA :)  Funny girl. Well, come over here and teach me how to shake.  I am so new to training puppies that I have been reading on it, and some of the stuff is like, duh.. but some stuff I am like, oh man, is she too young? 9 weeks?  Seems her attention span is play play play. I am thinking she might be a few weeks too young? am I right?

No your pup is definately ready to learn. The sooner you start training the better. My pup started training classes at 8 weeks, as soon as she had her first set of vaccinations. The easiest things to start with are the sit, give a paw, down and come (probably a very important one for a sibe, or so i'm told), but theres no reason why she can't begin to learn anything, and don't forget things like teaching her not to jump up, to leave food until she is told she can eat it, walk nicely on a lead, e.t.c. Keep sessions short and fun. You can play and train at the same time. As she gets older you can increase the amount of time spent training and increase the difficulty of the exercises. Training should be slow and steady. For example with the stay you start with a few seconds and as they get better you can increase the amount of time they stay. I think you'd be surprised at how much they can learn so young! Socialisation is also really important at this age, as you probalby already know. It might be a good idea to look into a good puppy class, i take both of mine to clicker training classes and find it an excellent way to train. Also invest in a good training book, lots of treats, and away you go!
Have fun. :-)

Hi Mike - no your pup is ready to start learning now! Have you got a copy of "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey? You will find it invaluable for helping you teach the basics. Good luck - you sound like you'll make a great team.
:)

It sure is a relief to hear that a puppy getting hiccups often is normal. I too own Siberian huskies. I have two, one being and adult and her son being sixteen weeks old. Houdini is the pup and he constantly gets hiccups. Its so adorable, though. I give you a thumbs up for getting a husky. They are a wonderful dog and and wonderful family member. Do you have any pictures of you new puppy that you might be able to send through email?

Siberluver03,
You're not in the Uk are you??
I've been on the 'net for hours and everyone else seems to be asleep.

D4wn

Man, we had to leave the house today for the first time with her. So we put her in her cage and walked down the hall. That dog has some lungs. She howled and wined for 15 minutes.  So we went back to get her, didn't make it an issue, played around for about 10 minutes, put her back in the cage, and then left. We got back 4 hours later, and made no big deal we were home, let her out, and she went #1 and a whole lotta #2!!  hehe  That was hard though, so listen to her in the cage. Should have just left. But she is our baby and it breaks your heart to hear her doing that.

Kaya is eating alot today, so that makes me happy! :)

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4 hours is rather a long time to leave a baby puppy in  acrate ad expect her to be clean - you run the risk of negating the effect of the crate for house training if you put her in the position of 'having to' go in the crate :(

i do not like to put her in a crate, but it's something we have to do. The breeder said i was ok as well.

Lastnight, my wife kinda got upset. We have had her since Friday late night. Saturday she was with her all day, and then Sunday she has to work. I was home all day with her. Lastnight she seemed to come to me more. She also seemed to play "rougher" with my wife, and I am wondering if this is some kind of female thing. Where she is like, hey, I am the dominate female?  This true?  My wife was rather upset about it. My wife went to bed and I put the puppy in bed with her just to say goodnight, and her head was sticking out of the blanket, and she pounced and just kinda puppy bite her nose. My wife was pissed and was saying all night, she likes you, she doesn't like me.  I don't know if I have a bad case of a jealous wife, of a dog whom is trying to be like the dominate female???

I do think I have to get Kaya into some behavioral training. She doesn't seem to want to listen to my "NO's!" all the time.

I wouldn't believe it is a dominance thing, of course I could be wrong. My huskies tend to go back and forth between who they favour. They both think of me as the leader of the pack, but they tend to switch. One day Kieron will bring the tennis ball to my dad only and then the next she will bring it to me and no one else. Huskies are a family dog; which in my terms means they love everyone. Every dog will look up to one person as being most dominate, but this breed is very loving and will look up to everyone. Your husky and your wife are fine. I believe you have a bad case of a jealous wife. Just because your pup favours you one night doesn't mean a thing. Tomorrow night the husky will probably ignore you and be only with your wife. Just give both girls some time and things will straighten out. Just whatever you do, don't let your wife be mad at your pup. Just tell her to love the pup even when she is being mischievious and sometimes downright rude. That's a Sibe for you. As above, just give them some time.

I talked to the wife this morning. She is ok with the dog, just got a little tempered and cranky. She loves the dog, and says its the best thing to happen to her since me. (awww) But day two on the cage thing. Man, she goes nuts in there.  She was pretty tired, and I put her in the cage. Thinking that since I was home, and she would only be in the cage for about and hour, that she'd learn to know that sometimes, it wouldn't be for long periods of time. Well, since I was home and in the other room, being quite, she was going off. She really sounded pissed off. I was like wow, poor thing. After about 10 minutes, she settled down. Then 15 minutes later she started going nuts again. When she finally went back to sleep, i came in and she had pooped. I was like aww, maybe that is what woke her up.

But this cage thing, I think it's kinda mean when we leave, but I just moved into this house a month ago, brand new! She'd tear it up. So it's gotta be the cage. I just wish she wouldn't take it so hard. We've have come back everytime we put her in there.. :)

And today after I let her out, she followed me foot on foot, and whined her and there, like don't do that agian please daddy... what is a person to do?  I hope this doesn't last too long. It breaks my heart to hear her whine and cry.. she is my baby!

Yeah, that could be. Cause we've had her now almost 5 days, and it doesn't even begin to show that she knows to go outside. I am going to take her to training classes starting next week. I hope that this helps me, and her.  I want her to be the best dog ever! :)  Besides your dog :)

Hi MIke,
Have you got a copy of "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey? It is an absolute 'must-have' for all new puppy owners, and will help you all enormously with your puppy's training, housetraining included. Don't expect her to be clean in the house for many weeks yet. Good luck.
:)

No I don't, but I am looking at it right now on ebay.com.  Pretty good book for us starters huh? :)

Absolutely vital, I would say! Even long-standing dog owners find it a useful 'refresher course' with a new pup!
:)

Her training for life pack is pretty good too - video and audio tapes to help, and the audio tape contains noises of things your pup might not meet in everyday life, but need to become accoustemed too - like fireworks, thunder, children etc......

Hey,
    I've been thinking about getting a Husky for a while and it's great being able to hear you all talking about your dogs.  I've done lots of research through books and the web, like the SHCGB but was wondering if you knew of a good book with some advice in it?  Also if there are any Husky events around the South East like shows or races so I can see a bit more of my favorite breed before I get one myself
Thanks Kirky

http://www.snopeak.com/

For Nationwide events ;-)